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Monday, 25 July 2011

This town is coming like a ghost town

As the rest of Lush Places toddled off to a party to which we were not invited (how could that possibly be?), our thoughts turned to the village shop.

It's the centrepiece of The Enchanted Village, along with our pub, church, phone box, village hall, school and parish pump. We're lucky to have them. But, like the parish pump, the shop might not be in full working order for much longer.

For some time now, the shop has been for sale. Our shopkeeper has had enough, the stock has been running down and his final hope was an auction last Friday.

Despite Mr Grigg's best efforts (see my blog post for the Real West Dorset website), the bids failed to reach the reserve.

And with the publican throwing in the towel, we will soon be looking out on to a soulless, empty square. I can hear the clock strike thirteen, the shop sign creaking and a ginger wig blowing like tumbleweed up the path.

I've known a few villages where local residents have kept the shop open, not just to sell stuff but consciously as a community space. They take a rota volunteering and some of them also get together and bulk buy stuff like heating oil and other things you can get at a discount.

It's been ages since I've written a blog post, and I apologise for that There's been lots going on in Lush Places and lots goi...

The World from My Window

Stories from Corfu and Dorset

'Other countries may offer you discoveries in manners or lore or landscape; Greece offers you something harder - the discovery of yourself.'

So said Lawrence Durrell in the book, Prospero's Cell. In October 2012, I exchanged my life in the Dorset village of Lush Places, in the heart of England's rural underbelly, for twelve months in a village in north Corfu which I call Agios Magikades.

But a year was not enough. And now, in fits and starts, I'm back, with a foot in both countries.

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